For another such surprisingly ill-conceived objection by Nazm, in a very similar context, see 6,1 . Faruqi's observation that the traditional commentators didn't use dictionaries seems all too accurate; it's not their only problem, but it's certainly a symptom. From the first line alone, it's not clear which of the many senses of is going to be appropriate for this verse, or of either. The verse might even be about sexual intimacy. The range is so wide that a great many possibilities are open. In true mushairah performance style, we have to wait for the second line before we can properly interpret the very broad first one. And in the second line, we get a surprise: the basic image seems to be that of a seal or stamp, something that could never have been predicted from the first line alone. The stamp of love on the heart (perhaps the beloved's seal of possession) is envisioned as a defining mark of the lover; the design is stamped with colored ink, and the joining of the stamp to the heart is a form of 'mixture' or 'intimacy'. The worn-out lover is now in such a dire state of weakness that even this once-ardently-desired stamp of love is a 'burden' almost too heavy for the frail heart to bear. People in Ghalib's world constantly used their personal seals on letters and other documents; Ghalib had his own seals too. Faruqi points out some of the other patterns of wordplay in the verse, and wordplay is certainly its chief charm. But the idea of a seal or stamp is surely at the center of the wordplay. For it makes the best sense of the wonderful 'it's a burden on the heart' []. What an image of extremity! The lover is so weak that a single seal-mark (or shape, or image) stamped on his heart even in colored ink-- not to speak of sealing-wax!-- is a huge, wearisome weight for the frail heart to bear. On , see 119,1 . graphics/stamp.jpg